The Beginning
It was scrutinizingly a endangerment event that drew the sustentation of former President J.R. Jayewardene to computers. In 1982, Prof. Mohan Munasinghe, in the undertow of his work as Senior Energy Advisor to the President of Sri Lanka, tabled a 3-page memo at his first weekly meeting. The President on seeing it had requested a ½ page memo with the recommendations summarized in just two lines. Prof. Munasinghe, promptly edited the document using his Tandy Radio Shack TRS 80 computer and his EPSON dot matrix printer (both very new to Sri Lanka at the time), and returned with the document in the style and format required by the President, within ½ hour. Impressed with this outcome, the President had said “we should know increasingly well-nigh this technology” and had requested a report. Prof. Munasinghe’s unenduring report resulted in the setting up of the Special Presidential Committee on National Computer Policy, and thereby launched Government intervention in the zone of ICT.
The National Computer Policy for Sri Lanka (COMPOL)
The Committee on National Computer Policy (COMPOL) guidelines was set up at the request of the H.E the President, by the Natural Resources, Energy and Science Authority (NARESA). Mohan Munasinghe was the Chair, while the other members were Prof. VK Samaranayake, Dr. RB Ekanayake, Dr. NWN Jayasiri, Prof. The resultant policy document was approved by the Cabinet in 1983, and it has stood the test of time. For over 20 years, this was the only Cabinet approved ICT policy in Sri Lanka, until many years later, in 2009, when the e-Government policy drafted by ICTA was approved by the Cabinet. Munasinghe stressed that this very first computer policy was not a “controlling” policy. to use computer technology in all its aspects, for the benefit of the people of Sri Lanka, and to further the social-economic development of the nation. First the developmental needs of the country were addressed and then the way in which technology could be used for development was ascertained. The general philosophy underlying the National Computer Policy Guidelines was specifically stated as “to foster initiative and creativity in both public and private sectors, and to coordinate, encourage and guide these efforts rather than to control and regulate them”.
COMPOL report – emphasis on development
No other country at that time had such a well-defined computer policy as COMPOL. There was to be a Board or a Council to advise the Minister in charge on the formulation of National policy for supporting development, to improve the quality of life of the people and to meet the challenges of technological change. The focus was on advancing technological skills, creating a facilitating and enabling environment; and the far-sighted objective, even then, of exporting computer related services. These same objectives were also encompassed within the e-Sri Lanka Development Program implemented by ICTA, 20 years later.
The Computer and Information Technology Act no. 10 of 1984 and setting up of CINTEC
Drawing on COMPOL report, Prof. Munasinghe personally helped the Legal Draftsman’s Office to prepare the Computer and Information Technology Act no. 10 of 1984. This Act was widely focused on the formulation and implementation of policy for supporting national development. Some of its key objectives were to teach the Minister on the formulation and implementation of a national policy on computers and IT and moreover to promote, facilitate and squire the use of and using of computer and IT in Sri Lanka with a view to improving the quality of life of its people and enabling Sri Lanka to reap the necessary sufficiency to meet the transpiration of technological change. Prof. Munasinghe moreover served on the Presidential Committee on Telecommunications Policy , and incorporated relevant ideas from that exercise into the CINTEC Act. The Computer and Information Technology Council of Sri Lanka (CINTEC), was established in 1984 as the noon Government soul on computers and IT. There were three elements which comprised CINTEC; firstly, there was the Board or the Council to teach the President or the Minister in charge. Prof. Mohan Munasinghe was the founder Chairman. The other members of the first Council – recommended by Prof. Munasinghe — were Prof. V.K. Samaranayake, Dr. R.B. Ekanayake, Prof. Abhaya Induruwa , Dr. N.W.N. Jayasiri, Mr. C. Gunasingham , Mr. K.K. Gunawardena , Mr. Akiel Mohamed , Mr. G. Kumaratunga , and Prof. J. Gunawardena .The professionalism and wholesale coverage of the Board (which included senior persons from government, academia and starchy society) helped to ensure its success. CINTEC functioned under the President from its commencement. This gave CINTEC the clout that was necessary for implementing policy and the relevant IT related decisions throughout the Government organizations. President Jayewardene moreover relied on Prof. Munasinghe to help him yacky and implement public policy on ICT for minutiae – establishing Sri Lanka as a leader among developing nations. For example, in his famous write at the convocation recurrence of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura in 1984, the President stated: “Science and Technology must be an essential part of development. It has to be part of upbringing from the cradle….we are in the process of establishing a computer and information technology council…..the microchip is today the carrier of knowledge….the need to leapfrog into the future is paramount in the life of a developing nation….Time is of the essence. The time is now, and we must grasp it. You, young men and women of the future will be the beneficiaries.” The CINTEC Secretariat supported the work of the Council. There were several Working Committees such as the Committee on Law and Computers, the Committee on Data Communication, the Committee on Public Sector Computerization and the Education Committee. Committee members were drawn from the Government sector, from the academia, the private sector and comprised those with expertise in these fields. Then there were the other elements with which CINTEC had ties such as the Centers of Excellence – viz., the Universities of Moratuwa, Colombo and Peradeniya and NIBM for wonk work and for skill development. CINTEC moreover supported the Computer Society of Sri Lanka (CSSL), a professional soul which had just been established. And CINTEC moreover interacted with focal nodes in key Ministries, which served as the points through which computerization would be introduced into Government organizations. These links facilitated the promotion and use of computers. Since its inception in 1984, CINTEC became a role model for developing countries and a prime example of how computer driven minutiae could take place in a developing country. Many leading wares were published in Sri Lanka and internationally. Two premier world science academies, The United States National Academy of Sciences in Washington DC, and Third World Academy of Science (TWAS) in Trieste, recognized the path breaking work in Sri Lanka. They collaborated closely with CINTEC during this early period, conducting several international seminars and publishing books jointly (CINTEC-USNAS, 1985 and CINTEC-TWAS, 1989 ).
Looking ahead
Prof. Munasinghe stressed that implementation of technology should not be pursued as an end in itself, but rather it is necessary to first embark with a minutiae rencontre and thereafter the towardly technology should be selected and applied. Government, he states, should play an enabling, facilitating and guiding role, while merchantry is the main suburbanite of innovation and technology development, and academia develops the human resource topics and addresses skill minutiae issues. Furthermore, Prof. Munasinghe stresses that goal no. 9 of the Sustainable
Development Goals – Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure – can be a prime driving gravity for ICT-led sustainable development. Besides his pioneering work in ICT, Prof. Munasinghe has won accolades for his unrenowned contributions towards the areas of environment, energy, climate transpiration and sustainable development. He remoter explains that today, humankind is using increasingly than 1½ times the sustainable topics of this planet. And ICT, considering it improves the efficiency of resource use, can help reduce this undersong on the planet. ICT can moreover help the poor lift themselves out of poverty, unzip a increasingly equitable distribution of wealth; provide information and livelihoods; and facilitate good governance, modernize peccancy and transparency. ICT should not be perceived as just a useful technology but as a major thrust zone for transforming society and making minutiae increasingly sustainable.
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